With high school and college graduation season happening over the last two months, the AmeriCorps members and program staff at College Possible Milwaukee have been excited to celebrate the achievements of the students they serve. Over the last year, the program served more than 500 high school students at 18 high schools with 86% earning admission to college. Additionally, they support more than 1,100 college students at 114 universities across the country.

The AmeriCorps members with Chippewa Fresh Start have had a busy last several months, working on the house that they are building as their term nears its completion, volunteering at multiple community organizations, and completing coursework and educational opportunities. The young adults who participate in the Chippewa Fresh Start program are ages 17 to 24 and may have a variety of barriers to self-sufficiency, with many of them either having dropped out of high school or are struggling to finish high school. During their service, they are involved in every phase of new home construction, and in addition to this hands-on learning experience, they also complete classes leading to a high school diploma, GED, or HSED. They are actively completing several elements of construction on the home, which is slated to be completed this summer and sold to an income-eligible family in the community. In addition to working on some of the final parts of the home construction, they assisted with several events and projects in the greater Eau Claire community. 

June has been an eventful month for AmeriCorps member Maddie Kinscher, who is currently serving with Marshfield Clinic Health System – Community Corps at Central Rivers Farmshed in Stevens Point. She has not only assisted and led several efforts at her host site, but also had the opportunity to gain greater knowledge on public health that will have lasting impacts beyond her service

One of these efforts has been recruiting volunteers to distribute Badger State Boxes, which are a monthly supplemental food box with all foods sourced from Wisconsin farms and producers. These boxes are helping to address the growing issues with food insecurity, not only providing healthy local foods, but also being one of the more accessible supplemental food programs available. For more information about the Badger State Boxes, check out the following reflection by Maddie: Helping Vulnerable Populations with Badger State Boxes.

Additionally, Maddie had the opportunity to expand her knowledge of public health concerns by attending the Action Policy Institute through the American Public Health Association. Maddie describes her experience and lessons she learned about building the relationships needed to promote community health and using your voice to start a conversation about what organizations can do better to improve the quality of life in the community in the following reflection: Examining Tough Questions in Community Health.

In addition to these reflections, you can learn more about Maddie’s service by listening to the following episode of The S-Files podcast, Providing for Community Needs with MCHS Community Corps, in which Maddie describes additional service activities she has done at Central Rivers Foodshed, as well as her favorite memories from her service so far and other reflections on her experience.

NCCAP AmeriCorps members and alumni helped bring the Wausau community together this month in celebration for both World Refugee Day and Juneteenth on June 18. 

June episodes of The S-Files podcast

This month on The S-Files, we explored the service stories of three AmeriCorps members that are serving different communities throughout the state. Check out these episodes below and access all of the podcast episodes on The S-Files podcast series website.

In this episode of The S-Files, we are exploring the service stories of two AmeriCorps members, Shirley Aspinall and Nicole Chavez, who are serving with Marshfield Clinic Health Systems AmeriCorps Community Corps at Milwaukee Riverkeeper. Shirley describes her role as Communications Coordinator, promoting efforts to the public to recruit volunteers for water quality monitoring, river cleanups, and other projects, as well as assisting community education efforts. Nicole speaks about her role as Sustainability Coordinator, which focus primarily as serving as the volunteer coordinator for the Plastic Free MKE coalition and multiple efforts to inform the public. Both of them discuss their service helping to organize and participate in the annual Earth Day river cleanup, which had 4,300 volunteers at 82 sites clean up 106,000 pounds of trash along the different waterways. Listen to learn about how Nicole and Shirley are assisting efforts to improve the quality of Milwaukee’s rivers through educating the public, training and coordinating volunteers, and connecting people to their local waterways. (listen to episode here)

In this episode of The S-Files, we are exploring the service done by AmeriCorps member Kaitlyn Zenner, who served with ECLIPSE (Early Childhood Literacy Intervention Program Services and Evaluation) through University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire. Kaitlyn discusses her service helping 3-5 year-old children at Days Gone By Early Learning grow in the areas of language, literacy, social interaction, and initiative skills. She describes the activities she did within their classroom, including with the child that she was paired with to provide specific literacy interventions. Listen to learn about how Kaitlyn built upon her previous experience conducting research on literacy interventions at UW-Eau Claire's Human Development Center during her AmeriCorps service, as well as how she will build upon lessons she learned during her service after receiving a Fulbright grant to further her experience instilling literacy skills. (listen to episode here)

Serve Wisconsin is hiring a Program and Policy Analyst and a Monitoring and Program Officer

Serve Wisconsin is excited to announce we are looking for two people to join our staff for positions supporting AmeriCorps programs and members here in Wisconsin. We are looking for dedicated individuals to become our Program and Policy Analyst and our Monitoring and Program Officer. Individuals can learn more and apply by July 14, 2022.

This position provides administrative and programmatic support for AmeriCorps programs, outreach & marketing activities, and select activities and projects that further the mission of Serve Wisconsin. Duties include managing an assigned portfolio of AmeriCorps program subgrantees, including providing technical assistance to AmeriCorps subgrantees and oversight of subgrantee progress, financial reporting and compliance with federal, state, and Serve Wisconsin requirements. Additional duties include developing and managing Serve Wisconsin’s AmeriCorps Alumni network, assisting the Executive Director in planning and developing operational policies, strengthening Serve Wisconsin’s relationship with stakeholders including federal contacts, elected officials, non-profit organizations and the general public.

This position provides administrative and programmatic support for AmeriCorps programs, program compliance & training, and select activities and projects that further the mission of Serve Wisconsin. Duties include

AmeriCorps members, AmeriCorps alumni, and anyone interested in learning more about the Segal Education Award are welcome to attend an upcoming training session on Friday, July 15 at 10:00 a.m. CT. Sharon Tewbury-Bloom from Do Good Be Good will offer this one-hour webinar on using the education award, with this training being recorded for future viewing.

Those interested in attending the webinar need to register here: https://bit.ly/edawardWI

Paying off student loans, pursuing graduate school, taking an online course to enhance your skills or explore your interests…there are so many options for how to use your education award. During this workshop, you will get a chance to hear stories from AmeriCorps alumni who navigated MyAmeriCorps.gov successfully and used their award to further their goals. Get ideas, tips on making it through the paperwork, and a plan for how to make the most of this benefit.

Those interested in serving are required to complete an application to the governor for the appointment. The online application for applying for a board position can be found HERE, with additional information on the application process found at Apply to Serve - Governor Tony Evers. If you are potentially interested in serving on the board and have any questions, please contact Serve Wisconsin Executive Director Jeanne Duffy at jeanne.duffy@wisconsin.gov.

Serve Wisconsin | servewisconsin.wi.gov | AmeriCorps